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In April the state of Michoacan in southwestern Mexico continued to experience confrontations involving organized crime and heavily armed citizen vigilantes, the militiamen who emerged to confront the state’s notoriously violent Caballeros Templarios drug cartel. As I explained in a previous post, "In addition to experiencing severe security problems in many rural areas, Michoacan has also seen attacks against electricity infrastructure, trucks owned by Sabritas, a subsidiary of Pepsi, and the murder of an employee of ArcelorMittal."

An Unstable Situation

A Mexican "autodefensa" militia member carrying an AK-47 looks over at an army patrol truck in Michoacan. Photo by N. Parish Flannery @LatAmLENS.

On April 2 I tweeted this story about the death of Templario cartel leader “Kike” Plancarte. In the article Paulina Villegas explains, “Mexican authorities said on Tuesday that they had killed another leader of the feared Knights Templar drug gang, adding to a string of successes against the organization that seemed to leave only one boss still at large: a former schoolteacher believed to be hiding in the hills of the Pacific state of Michoacán.”

Also on April 2 I tweeted this fantastic Spanish-language story from the April issue of Mexican news magazine Nexos by Denise Maerker which provides a narrative account of the origins of Michoacan’s “autodefensa” movement. In the article Maerker explains, “In March of 2014, the autodefensas have a presence in 24 municipalities in the state of Michoacan and have succeeded in drawing the federal government back to the region with resources and reinforcements.” In her article Maerker explains, “Ever since the first images were published, the autodefensa groups sparked suspicions: men and women in ski masks, heavily armed, driving expensive trucks, and wearing spotless white t-shirts emblazoned with words 'For a Tepalcatepec Libre.' They were nothing like the community police in Guerrero who were also in the news: humble people, most of whom are indigenous, carrying antique weapons.”

On April 4 I tweeted a link to my video for ThisIsFusion. In the video I explain that although in short term the citizens militias in Michoacan have filled a vacuum for an effective local police force, in the longer term, “we’ll need to see is the implementation of internal controls and the continued professionalization of this autodefensa rural defense force. And I think that if we see that it’s less likely that they’ll emerge as the new bad guys in the region.”

On April 7 I tweeted a link to this article about Guillermo Valencia, the mayor of Tepalcatepec who denied meeting with drug smugglers and claimed, “All the mayors in Michoacan are extorted. Anyone who complains is killed."

On April 16 I tweeted a link to this video of a panel discussion at the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. The panel includes Duncan Wood, Michael Shifter, Vanda Felbab-Brown, John Bailey, and Clare Seelke. In the video Felbab-Brown explains “The junction of the problem for the state is the lack of alignment between illegality and illegitimacy. The story of Mexico is the story of rebalancing between the state and organized crime. [It’s] competition between the state and non-state actors, criminal groups. There are a whole range of responses beyond law enforcement. Nonetheless law enforcement is the critical response that the state needs to adopt. To realign the allegiance of the population towards the state from non-state actors. [The goal] to reduce the disjunction between illegality and illegitimancy. The Peña-Nieto administration has embraced this notion… [but] the implementation has much to resolve.” In Michoacan, part of this rebalancing act has been a move to bring the citizens militias under the oversight of the government by re-organizing them as a rural defense force, a sub-unit of the army. During the discussion, John Bailey, who recently wrote a book called The Politics of Crime in Mexico: Democratic Governance in a Security Trap asked, "Is the transition [from autodefensas to rurales] is just a relabeling? The state needs a policy response. Maybe it's more symbolic."

On April 22 I tweeted a link to this El Pais story which explains “a new phase is starting [in the relationship] between the Mexican government and the autodefensas in Michoacan. Representatives of the armed citizens groups have met with Alfredo Castillo, the head of security for the state, and the spokesmen for cells in 20 towns have accepted to regularize [as rurales] on May 10.” Although talks are moving forward some tensions still remain. Estanislao Beltran, the autodefensa leader known as Papa Pitufo or Papa Smurf for his long beard, responded to reports that the citizens groups had agreed to disarm by saying, “I don’t know where they got that. I never talked about disarming.”

On April 23 I tweeted a link to this story which explains that the Mexican army sent patrols into the town of Huetamo near the city of Morelia after shootouts between armed groups left eighteen people injured. Estanislao Beltran told reporters “these shootouts happened between criminal groups wearing autodefensa shirts and not between autodefensas and organized crime.” Beltran also added that “these face-offs were part of a territorial dispute. We know that a cartel from [the neighboring state of] Guerrero is trying to come in and push out the Caballeros Templarios and the cell of the Familia Michoacana that operate here.”

On April 24 I tweeted a link to this article, which features great photos of Beltran and other autodefensa fighters searching a cave near Templario leader “La Tuta” Gomez’s hometown. On April 25 I tweeted a link to this AP article which explains, “Residents want to get the local iron ore mines re-opened so the area's economy can start again. The government cracked down earlier this year on the Knights Templars' extensive involvement in iron ore exports to China.” For economic life to return to normal, Mexico’s government needs to re-establish law and order. In the long term serious improvements need to made to Mexico’s criminal justice system. In the short term, the government is focusing on demobilizing the auto-defensa groups. Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio Chong has said that what he wants to see is the autodefensas leave their guns at home. "There cannot be armed people in the streets," Osorio Chong said.

On April 27 I tweeted this story which explains that some autodefensas could start to disarm by April 28.